Ductless mini splits in Arlington.
In Arlington a one-zone ductless mini split costs $7,000 to $10,000 installed: one room on its own, like a Cape Cod’s upstairs bedroom or a finished basement.
- Published price ranges
- Heats and cools, room by room
- Dedicated HVAC team
Get your mini split priced
Arlington rooms the ducts missed: Cape Cod upstairs, garden apartments, basements.
Maywood’s 1930s Cape Cods put the bedrooms upstairs under a sloped roof, behind knee walls. If the ducts reach that half story at all, they climb from a basement furnace through a closet, and on a July afternoon it’s the warmest floor in the house. A head in each upstairs bedroom on one outdoor unit lets the upstairs run cooler than the rest without touching the basement system. Two zones run $11,000 to $15,000 installed.
Older still are Maywood’s Craftsman bungalows and four-squares, built from 1909 into the 1940s, and the houses of Lyon Park and Cherrydale from the same decades. A house from that era that still heats with hot water radiators has no ductwork to carry cooling at all, and window units are what it lives with every summer. Ductless replaces them room by room: a head high on the wall, a small hole for the copper lines, and no ceilings opened.
Between 1934 and 1954 Arlington built 176 apartment buildings and complexes, Colonial Village, Buckingham and Fairlington among them. A garden apartment from that wave that never got central air is a natural ductless job: one outdoor unit, a head in the living room and another in the bedroom. If it’s a condo, the association approves anything on the outside wall first.
Westover’s 1940s houses and Glebewood Village’s rowhouses from 1937 and 1938 were built over basements. If yours has since become a family room or a guest room, the duct plan probably didn’t change with it, and the room makes do with a register off a trunk line never sized for it. A head of its own fixes that without rebalancing the floors above.
Arlington houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
Arlington
- Median home built1960 Census
- Built before 1980about 5 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 3 in 10 Census
- Most homes arecondo and apartment buildings, about 6 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 6 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 6 in 10 Census
- Ducts in houses this age were often sized for the furnace, not for cooling, so upstairs rooms run warm in July.
- Condo buildings usually need the association’s approval before an outdoor unit goes on.
What a ductless mini split costs in Arlington.
Installed, from the price book our HVAC price estimator runs on. A zone is one room with its own indoor head, and you get the price in writing before you decide.
- Ductless mini split, one zone, installed$7,000 to $10,000
- Ductless mini split, two zones, installed$11,000 to $15,000
- Ductless mini split, three zones, installed$12,500 to $18,000
- Ductless mini split, four zones, installed$16,000 to $21,000
- Ductless mini split, five zones, installed$19,000 to $25,000
- Ductless mini split, six zones, installed$23,000 to $30,000
Where you land in a range is mostly the distance from the outdoor unit to the room, the kind of head and the room left in the electrical panel.
The second zone costs the most because it often needs a bigger outdoor unit. Our mini split cost guide explains.
When a ductless mini split makes sense in Arlington.
The window units come out every October
In a radiator house or a garden apartment without central air, a window unit in each room is the usual summer. Each of those is a room a mini split head can take over, heating as well as cooling.
You’re in a condo
An outdoor unit on a condo building usually needs the association’s approval first, and some buildings say where it can go. Ask before you price one.
The far rooms never got the cooling
Plenty of older houses got central air added years after they were built, and the rooms at the end of the duct run are the ones that stay warm.
Who signs off on a mini split in Arlington.
Arlington County
Replacing a furnace or air conditioner with the same type, size and location needs no Arlington permit unless it burns gas, which takes a plumbing and gas permit. With no permit, Zoning still approves where any outdoor equipment goes. Source.
How to pick the best mini split installer in Arlington.
Questions worth asking anybody who quotes you, us included.
Did they show you where the line set runs outside?
The copper lines from the outdoor unit to each head run along an outside wall, usually under a painted cover. On a brick garden apartment or a house in a historic district, ask for the route on paper before anything is drilled, so you approve the look, not just the price.
Did they check the rest of the house first?
If the room’s trouble is a closed damper or a crushed duct, a mini split is an expensive fix for a cheap problem. Ask what they checked first.
Is the whole job in the price?
Ask whether it covers the line set run, the new circuit and putting the walls back, or only the equipment.
What our customers say.
Swiftpro did an excellent job installing a minisplit unit for us in our sunroom. They were super professional.
5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Ductless mini split questions from Arlington.
Do I need County approval for a mini split in Arlington?
For a new one, plan on it. Arlington’s mechanical permit page lists adding an air conditioning system as permit work, and the County’s Zoning office approves where the outdoor unit goes. In Maywood, Buckingham Village or Colonial Village, the County’s local historic districts, an exterior change can also need a certificate of appropriateness.
How many zones for the upstairs of an Arlington Cape Cod?
Most often one head per bedroom, so two or three, all on a single outdoor unit. Two zones run $11,000 to $15,000 installed and three run $12,500 to $18,000. The HVAC price estimator gives you the number for the rooms you have in mind.
How much does a ductless mini split cost in Arlington?
Installed, one zone is $7,000 to $10,000, two zones $11,000 to $15,000 and three zones $12,500 to $18,000, up to $23,000 to $30,000 for six. The HVAC price estimator gives your number.
Does a mini split heat, or only cool?
Both. A ductless system is a heat pump, and cold-climate models keep heating well below freezing, which covers a Northern Virginia winter.
Ductless mini splits in the towns next door.
- Ductless mini splits in Falls Church
- Ductless mini splits in Alexandria
- Ductless mini splits in Dunn Loring
- Ductless mini splits in Annandale
- Ductless mini splits in McLean
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Tell us which room it is.
Call, or book online and pick a window. You get the installed price in writing before anything goes on the wall.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Arlington and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 997-9757. Book online, read our reviews, or see every town we serve.